Hi everyone and thank you Darwin to accept me here!I’m an Italian weapons collector and I collect firearms from 1979. I think that I was born with the “guns thought” and I start shooting in 1967 at the age of 6 y.o. with my grandfather's Beretta 22 L.R. carabine. It was love at the first shot! My parents weren’t against this, fortunately, so I was able to continue shooting. (In that times the Italian gun law wasn’t so bad and there aren’t weapon bans or other similar crap)In my 18 y.o., with my first “gun licence”, I bought my first weapon; a post 2nd W.W. Walther PP in 7,65 Browning.My passion quickly start turned for ex military weapons and rifle in first !So reloading was a necessary step in my evolution because of the prohibitive costs of some kind of ammunition in that time (6,5 Swedish, 8x57JS, 7,5 Swiss and other similar.)My first reloading press was a RCBS single station where I learned this “work”.In many years of experience, and too many money spent, I have had 255 ex military weapons in rifles and handguns and 50 firearms in civilian calibers ..... Silly me... now I reduced the number at only 120 in total ... with the age increase some interest may be focused in specific topics (principally 2nd WW and Cold War era)In 1995 I bought my first PRO1000 progressive press and later a LoadMasterInitially I reloaded also 223 and 7,62x39 but now, with the advent of surplus ammunition, I use these presses for my handguns rounds.What I’m looking for in this forum? We never end to learn ! And learning is when you can “drink” from the bottle of each other knowledge!Thank you for having me in your forum and sorry for may bad English

Last edited by Ugo on Sun Dec 10, 2017 6:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Welcome Ugo and thanks for your post. You sound like an old-timer like me (82yrs).

You and I had a similar background as I was reared by a hunter Dad. My favorite uncle was also a big hunter.I began hand loading for my 30-06 hunting rifle when I was about 20. Since then I have acquired many calibers and hand load for each one. Use my Loadmaster for handgun calibers only. I still prefer to use single stage press for all rifle calibers. I did not begin with RCBS but have purchased RCBS products for many years now. My collection is mostly modern firearms although I have acquired a WWI Luger.

Thank you ErleRespect for your age! Wisdom comes from "Gray"!I'm 56 y.o. but I'm not an hunter now, here in Italy hunting is not so good and easy, we have had, in this last 25 years, a radical persecution of hunters from government, green party, environmentalists, vegans and other craps.You have several days in a specific time of the year (from September to October) and only for 3 days in a week and you have some other times to hunt wild boars, deer and roes too.You have a record sheet where you MUST check what you kill ..... and you have a specific number of wildness to shoot. (pheasant, partridges, hares, woodcock etc.)By the way to much trouble for me!Speaking of weapons ... I love Luger! I have an Artillery Langhe Pistole, a Swiss made (Cross in the Shield), a Weimar Republik P08 with two date; production and modification after Versailles Pact, a very rare 2WW P08 (only 7000 product in February 1941) and a much rare DDR cold war P08 (500 produced).I also have/love Mauser C96 and I have a M912 Schnellfeuer Pistole perfectly working !!!!!I agree with you about using a single stage reloading press because, especially in some calibers like .303Brit and 6.5 Swedish and 7,62 NATO (and not .308Win !!!! is not the same thing of a 7,62 NATO for God Sake!) because I need to use not an hunting reload but a military grade one.

My family wasn't interested in guns, but I bought a .22 bolt action rifle and a 20 gauge shotgun from a friend of my brother when I was about 14 years old. I still have the .22, I don't know what happened to the shotgun. I think I sold it back to the guy.

After I got married I bought a cheap .38 revolver for home protection. And later a little Sterling .22 pistol which I carried.

About 15 years ago, I bought a Kel-Tec 9mm pistol to carry. I shot tens of thousands of rounds through that and started reloading.

About 10 years ago, I caught the 1911 bug. I have 6 of them now, in 3 calibers. I picked up an AK 47 and a few other guns

Several years ago, I had approximately 6,000 rounds of .45 ACP loaded and haven't gone through them yet, so I haven't reloaded for quite a while.

Being retired, I don't go to the range nearly as much as I should

Oh, on January 19, 2008, I shot myself in the leg with a .45. Donations from members of Glocktalk allowed me to create the web site including these forums and one devoted to my negligent discharge. I later added a third web site devoted to astronomy.

Darwin, in my experience on shooting fields (because in Italy we can shoot only on autorized fields) I have seen something like this...... gun exploded for overcharging or using incorrect rounds, 2 people wounded by others mistakes, and one that injured himself in a hand trying to disassemble a Glock with a round in the chamber..... (try to image the scene.....)I personally have had in April 25th 1988 a scary experience with a gun that I was sure it was unloaded but (surprise) I discovered that it wasn’t ..... now I have a hole in my wall (never repaired!) to remember me what my grandfather was used to say “weapons are always hungry and so many times you could be their dinner” .... he wasn’t wrong.....